Posters lionizing Bondi Beach terrorist found plastered in Melbourne

Dozens of posters lionizing one of the perpetrators of the Bondi Beach terror attack were found plastered in Melbourne’s central business district on Tuesday.

Approximately 40 posters, designed to deliberately mimic the visual style of a well-known “Aussie” street art series promoting inclusion, were unlawfully plastered on public infrastructure around the CBD, according to the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), an Australian organization founded to combat antisemitism in the country.

The posters feature Naveed Akram, who, together with his father, Sajid Akram, killed 15 people and wounded dozens attending a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach on December 14.

Melbourne Mayor Nick Reece condemned the posters as “sick” and said municipal staff were rushing to locate all of the posters and take them down.

The posters use the well-known theme of street artist Peter Drew’s iconic “Aussie” campaign, in which photos of 20th-century immigrants to the continent were paired with the word “Aussie” in bold lettering, in an effort to challenge racially exclusive definitions of national identity. The 2016 poster series has recently been updated for its 10-year anniversary.

Drew told Australian media outlets that the imitation posters detracted from the spirit of his series.

“It’s more the statement rather than the quantity,” he said. “I have to go out there and put out hundreds, but they can just put out a few to make the point.”

???? MELBOURNE: TERRORIST GLORIFICATION

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Posters praising Naveed Akram, one of the Bondi Beach attackers, were plastered across Melbourne’s CBD.
About 40 posters, designed to mimic inclusive street art, were put up illegally. The Anti-Defamation Commission says this is… pic.twitter.com/xjgtYfSnHr

— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) February 3, 2026

“For Drew’s work to be hijacked and appropriated into images of hatred and division is absolutely abhorrent,” Reece said. “To use the image of the Bondi shooter is just sick. Families are still grieving, the community is still grieving.”

Jewish organizations were likewise outraged by what ADC chair Dvir Abramovich called “glorification of mass murder.”

“This is not street art. This is grave-dancing,” Abramovich said. “Putting the face of a Bondi terrorist on city walls is psychological terrorism aimed at families who are still burying their dead. That is rot… and it tells Jewish Australians that even our mourning is not sacred.”

It was not known who was behind the posters, but Abramovich called for law enforcement to prosecute those responsible.

Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the Gaza war and setting off a global tidal wave of antisemitism, Australia’s Jewish community has been among the hardest hit in the world.

A report published in December by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said the country saw 1,654 incidents during the 12-month period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025 — about five times the annual average recorded in the decade prior to the Hamas assault.